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History of Berezebel
Legendary Past According to Berezite foundational mythology, the city of Berezebel was founded by the culture hero Baraz, descendent of the sun-god Nur-Utar. Legend states that Baraz married a princess from a land far to the east, known only as the "Land of Sunrise", and brought her on a winged steed westward to the Iuma river valley. There he settled and founded a city, naming it after himself. The Berezite nation claims descent from him. Most scholars of Berezite history view this legendary tale as a folk-memory of early Berezite migration from somewhere in Mesopotamia or the northern Levant, pointing to the cultural similarities between Berezebel and Akkado-Sumerian civilisations such as Nambiris. Formative History The Berezite people spread out from this initial legendary settlement into the Iuma and Kurga river valleys, so that by the dawn of Berezebel's history proper with the unification of the various Berezite city-states, they controlled the entire Kurga valley and the Iuma up to where it flowed into the Ziaba. At some time during this formative period, the Berezite people mastered the arts of animal husbandry, pottery, basic mining and metal-smelting and the working of bronze. Their mastery of stonecutting and masonry led them to build cities that were strongly fortified for the period, and gave the nascent empire of Berezebel a defensive advantage over the surrounding tribes. Also in this period, the first regnal stelae of the Berezite god-kings appear, marked with the Berezite hieroglyphic form of writing. Iron Age Berezebel In this early period, Berezite rulers were considered divine, rather like the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and presumably of Chixia also. Though this understanding was modified over the course of the period, Berezebel maintained a very high view of its kings and their authority, much more akin to the eastern Persians and Mesopotamians than to the Greeks away to the south. Utar-Zagusiddi The first king of whom good archaeological evidence remains is Utar-Zagusiddi. Reigning in the early 13th Century BCE, it was in his time that the first steps were made towards the forging of bronze weaponry. These early forays into the military application of bronze-working gave the formative Berezite army a decisive advantage over their tribal foes, leading Utar-Zagusiddi's stela to record the conquest of Hozingar to the northwest. Utar-Bazaduk Approximately a hundred years later, during the early reign of his descendent Utar-Bazaduk, the regnal stela records the fall of an iron star to earth in the Berezite territory, a star which was inscribed with the face of a lion, the sign of the war-god Nershag. Seeing this as an omen of Utar-Bazaduk's chosenness and the majesty of his reign, the Berezite ruler was able to parley this psychological advantage into a rapid expansion, bringing the city-states of Liburu, Kishur, Nushkur and Zarqan under his rule. The nickel-iron meteorite was forged into an iron kitbash sword, which became a major legitimising symbol of Berezite kingship; the blessing of the gods and divine sanction of their authority. Nar-Shashud Nershag-Udun Over the next couple of centuries the rapid expansion of the Berezite empire was to have consequences. By the reign of Nershag-Udun (early 1100BCE), the Berezite civilisation was entering a period of instability. Population growth was outstripping the ability of the central administration to keep up with it, and with both birth and death rates spiralling ever higher, the situation became a powder-keg. The warrior-king Nershag-Udun unwittingly made the situation worse by assailing and conquering the city of Burush-Kaddun to the northwest. Though the booty from this short, victorious war temporarily distracted the people from their plight, it was to sow seeds of terrible chaos to follow. Shar-Utar The supremely competent diplomat-administrators characterised by Utar-Bazaduk's reign and the warrior-kings typified by Nershag-Udun then gave way to a series of incompetent rulers, of which Nal-Shashud was the most competent. In Nal-Shashud's defence, he would probably have been a less disastrous ruler if he had been born at a different time, but coming on the heels of the somewhat reckless warrior-king Nershag-Udun into the middle of the strife-stricken demographic trap which Berezebel found itself in, his reign had predictable results. Three provinces - Zarqan, Hozingar and the lower Iuma province of Gash - revolted and began raiding the , following the lead of the Hozingarite underking Inur-Qamuzu. Shar-Utar was as incompetent a general as he was an administrator, and the once-proud Berezite army was decisively defeated and destroyed. Inur-Shurrupad The chaos that followed the downfall of the first great Berezite dynasty led eventually to the rise of a new dynasty under the supremely-capable Inur-Shurrupad. Under his reign in the 8th Century BCE, the Berezite army was reformed and a decisive strike made against Hozingar, the capital of the rebel kingdom. The rebellious king had been succeeded by the far less competent Tursamu, and the great king Inur-Shurrupad was able to deal a decisive blow to the rebellion, rolling up both Hozingar and Zarqan at one strike. The rebel army commander of Gash then took matters into his own hands, decapitating Tursamu and bringing his head to Inur-Shurrupad. Inur-Shurrupad's regnal stela saw the first official use of the Berezite demotic syllabary, which is named "Inurtic" in his honour. Ziur-Narud The final Berezite monarchs of the Iron Age, typified by Ziur-Narud, oversaw the development of Berezite iron-working. No real expansion occurred in the 8th Century BCE; the last Berezite kings of the Iron Age were a decidedly mediocre lot, militarily-speaking. This century saw the rise of sea trade routes, particularly with the Italic maritime power Aquilea, and an influx of new technology brought by these contacts. Early Antiquity The period of Early Antiquity saw the rise of new gods in the Berezite pantheon (notably Gisham the Divine Charioteer and Ipashtu the smith of the gods), the emergence of a long-standing sense of rivalry with the the Kingdom of Aquilea and an expansion into the peninsula of Ishtiru (Istria). Warash-Gisham Under the reign of the 7th Century king Warash-Gisham, the empire of Berezebel made its first forays into the use of iron for weapons. With iron-tipped spears and arrows, the Berezite armies conquered Kurusha and Buzatta on the eastern Istrian peninsula. Nar-Gisham His 7th Century successor Nar-Gisham saw the further diminution of the Istrian kingdom Ishtiru. Usage of iron for weaponry continued to increase, with the result that the Ishtiran provinces of Buruza and Amagaru fell into Berezite hands, leaving only the powerful southern port city Pul and the northern province of Tireshtu, sandwiched between Berezebel and Aquilea. The relatively rapid expansion of the Berezite kingdom led to a period of deforestation over the next two centuries; regnal annals from the period mention frequent low-level unrest. Utarbazaduk II The 5th Century rulers typified by Utarbazaduk II were a more inward-looking lot, and no expansion happened in either of the next two centuries. This was partially a consequence of the aforementioned unrest, though the 6th Century's rulers were military incompetents with little thought of expanding their borders. In this period, the development of the first forms of scientific inquiry took root in Berezebel: a semi-mystical endeavour characterised by a deep division between the earthly and the heavenly, and an inquiry into the nature of what the world was made from. Inamnershag At the end of the Early Antiquity peroid, a series of rulers typified by Inamnershag began the process of properly organising the Berezite army. Abandoning the ranks of spearmen used by his forefathers, Inamnershag for the first time broke the army into discrete, independently-manoeuvrable units. These units of three hundred men were still relatively large blocks, but made the first steps toward making the army an instrument of finesse rather than a single barely-directed mass of men. The situation at home was still too unstable to launch any foreign expeditions, but the beginnings of the Tesera system that would serve the rulers of Berezebel and its civilisation through the Late Antiquity period were sown in this time. Right at the end of the century, in the reign of Tilgisham I, the capital city was moved from the ancestral city Berezebel, which was renamed Bela, to the new capital Berezi, named like its predecessor in honour of the legendary ancestor of the nation. This transition marks the end of the so-called Berezebel period and the start of the Berezine Imperial period. Category:Berezebel